Abstract

COSTA, Adriana Cristina Oliva et al. Hospital dentistry in the public service of the State of São Paulo. Rev. Assoc. Paul. Cir. Dent. [online]. 2013, vol.67, n.4, pp. 306-313. ISSN 0004-5276.

The Sao Paulo state government recently began a project known as "Sorria Mais São Paulo" ("Smile More São Paulo"), which, among other measures, instituted a Hospital Dentistry Program within the state's public healthcare system. In an attempt to be more comprehensive, the state government has added dental surgeons (DSs) to hospital staff. The goal of this study was to chart the dentistry services available in Sao Paulo's public healthcare system. To do so, Brazil's National Health Establishment Registry (CNES) was consulted. The state's public healthcare network includes 199 hospitals, though only 20% of the state's cities are covered. The largest concentration of establishments (37) are in the DRS I region. In these hospitals, the administrative sectors are often private (87.4%), 66.3% are under city management, and 17% are exclusively public hospitals. Though 859 DSs have been hired, more than half of them perform tasks that were not proposed by the Program, 58% work fewer than 20 hours per week, and more than half of their time is spent on ambulatory care services. Of these DSs, 58.20% are considered "independent contractors," and 40.39% of their hirings are initiated by philanthropic entities. When one considers only the DSs that perform the tasks of the Program, the ratio of hospitalized patients to doctors is 87.57:1. With DSs working few hours and dividing their time between surgery and ambulatory care, it seems that the state needs to develop new services and increase hirings in order to meet the demand for these healthcare professionals.

Keywords : dental service; hospital dental care for disabled; dental care for chronically Ill; dental staff; hospital dentistry.